Salt and Olives: Morality and Custom in Ancient Greece 9781474467742

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Salt and Olives

These little statues, called Hermae, stood before most houses, and at many street intersections, in ancient Athens, and were felt to confer good luck. The god Hermes himself was the patron both of trickery and deception and of business transactions, as well as a protector of travellers. National Museum, Athens.

Salt and Olives Morality and Custom in Ancient Greece

JOHN DILLON

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS

©John Dillon,

2004

Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Bembo by Koinonia, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Eastbourne Transferred to digital print 2008

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN

o 7486 r6r8 7 (hardback)

The right of John Dillon to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Illustrations on pages xvii and xviii are from: Wycherley, R. E., The Stones cif Athens. © 1978 Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

Contents

Abbreviations Note on Orthography Note on Athenian Money Glossary Preface Illustrations I

The Family: For Better or Worse

2

Outside the Fold, Beyond the Pale: Problems of

vi vn vm IX

xm XVI

I

Non-Citizen Women

25

3 Preserving the Oikos: The Woes of Inheritance

50

4 The Best ofEnemies: Patterns of Friendship and Enmity

78

5 A Peculiar Institution: The Etiquette of Homosexual Relationships

I

6 Slaves and Slave-Masters

I27

7 Dealing with the Gods: Piety and Impiety

I

oI 55

8 A Vision of the Past: The Role of the Anecdote in the Formation of the Athenian Self-Image Bibliography Index

2IO 2I6

Abbreviations

Aristotle, Ath. Pol. = Athenaion Politeia, or Constitution